SACD Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy

A working band between tour dates

Steely Dan recorded Countdown to Ecstasy between concert commitments. The second album, released in 1973, captures Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Denny Dias and Jim Hodder while the shared band line-up still shaped their working lives. After the debut’s several lead singers, Fagen takes the lead on all eight songs here.

The relatively short track list leaves room for extended development. “Bodhisattva” opens the record, with “Your Gold Teeth” and “My Old School” among the longer pieces. Follow the route from a sung section into an instrumental passage rather than waiting only for a returning chorus. What continues underneath when a guitar or keyboard takes the lead, and what changes to make room for it?

Guests with particular jobs

A regular line-up does not exclude additional musicians. Ray Brown plays double bass on “Razor Boy”, while Rick Derringer supplies slide guitar on “Show Biz Kids”. Victor Feldman contributes vibraphone, marimba and percussion. A saxophone section arranged by Jimmie Haskell joins “My Old School”. These appearances give individual songs different resources within the continuing identity of the band.

Baxter and Dias handle many of the guitar solos. An album offers enough time to follow how different players approach a related task. There is no need to identify every entrance immediately: first notice how a solo is introduced and how the ensemble finds its way back to the vocal. The transitions often tell you as much about the arrangement as the featured passage itself.

A real college behind the song

“My Old School” draws on the writers’ time at Bard College and memories of a 1969 raid. That background makes the title more specific than a general reflection on student life. Personal experience supplies material for a song whose horn arrangement and guitar passages also have their own musical structure. Context helps explain its origin without exhausting what there is to hear.

The album title has a history outside the finished track list as well. Baxter recalled “Countdown to Ecstasy” as part of an abandoned rock-opera project. There is no song of that name on the record: the title survived the larger plan. Such traces belong to an album made within a touring schedule but still allowing its eight pieces substantial space. Steely Dan’s later exclusively studio-based method remained ahead of them.

Eight tracks on hybrid SACD

The Analogue Productions Hybrid Stereo SACD CAPP 135 SA contains the eight-song album. Bernie Grundman is credited with mastering from the original master tape. Its CD layer plays in conventional CD equipment, while the high-resolution SACD layer needs a compatible player. This is a stereo release. The programme from the original LP’s two sides can run continuously on the disc, without a required interruption at the former side boundary.

Michael 45 keeps the disc in Germany and dispatches it from Hilden, so customers can avoid arranging a personal US import and waiting for customs processing.

Also on 45 RPM vinyl: Countdown To Ecstasy

More by Steely Dan: Everything Must Go · Gaucho

Artist page: All titles by Steely Dan

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.